Regarding other good performers in my analysis there are some riders about using average performance over time. The below is my personal opinion and I am not buying or selling anything.
A LIC can come on-line in a boom and perform for a short time. I prefer a longer history, e.g. at least 5-10 years in varying markets, up, down and sideways. So straight out comparison of average rates is distorted by length of time they have been listed.
CDM is best average performer in my analysis at end of November. However it has only been around 7 years so missed a lot of the period where ALF under-performed which lowers ALF's average. I also think a lot of their performance was through one holding a few years back. They have never been cheap (since the big perform) so I hold none.
Just under ALF is OZG and MIR. OZG is also just a recent listing (7 years ago). MIR is a old timer that has consistently performed. I own OZG but you will find MIR trades at a premium and has for years so I own none. When MIR looks attractive there are always other newer LICs at big discounts, e.g. during GFC.
CTN and AMH comes under these. I own CTN. AMH is also interesting, they were originally a tech investor but switch to general investment after the tech crash in 2000. They have never been cheap enough to buy since I noticed they performed so well.
Most of the rest underperformed the ASX300accum since 2000 but some of the old timers are quite good long term.
Remember, the above is against the ASX300accum. I buy my international LICs for other reasons. I am also annoyed there are no mining LICs now, they would be screaming buys
. I am also annoyed there are no fixed interest LICs at all, they are big in the USA, but I would certainly buy them when the market looks dodgy. I am very happy ETF's have come on-line in the last 5 years because most LICs under-perform them, though ETF's also under-perform the indexes slightly with their management expenses.
Performance is a funny thing. In my opinion the LICS confuse things in the way they all differently report performance. Rating agencies report the last 1,3,5.. etc. years. I do not like this because the market next year will be different than the market last year (and next/last 3 or 5 years) and different LICs will perform. The best value I think is in LICs that have not made the top-performer in the last year or so but over 10+ years has shown they are worth investing in. I keep a very diverse portfolio of LICs (and ETFs) because of this, relying on buying cheap and picking LICs that have performed over long periods.
Do your own calculations, I make mistakes all the time.
Merry Xmas.
